Chapter 34 - The Morning After
A weary Lee was dressed and drinking coffee by 0630. Roger showed up shortly afterward with breakfast food for all. "I figured you could use a little energy. She pull any tricks last night?"
Lee's eyes twinkled at Roger as he postulated the several ways he might answer the question. "Nothing I couldn't handle."
"Saul said we were to stay with her until Dr. Drake arrives."
"He's joking, right? Last night, Mallard. Today, Drake?"
"Didn't seem to be but I do detect a theme."
Rachael slid quietly into the room wearing Lee's T-shirt and her undies. "I smell coffee."
Lee poured her a cup and set it down at the table.
"I could make some crack about everyone's cravings being satisfied here, but it seems so cheap," Roger said after he took a sip of coffee. He nearly spit it out as he broke into laughter afterward. Lee did spit his.
"Could someone let me in on the joke?"
"That lovely psychiatrist, Dr. Paulino, whom you are no longer seeing, has been conditioning you. The night before last when you escaped you were told to go someplace you felt safe. I was flattered that was here. Last night, you were told to satisfy a craving."
"That would explain the white pizza with anchovies."
"Yeah, just the pizza." Roger was doubled over laughing. Lee desperately tried to suppress his own laughter, but failed. Eventually Rachael joined in the laugh fest. It continued for a solid minute, when Rachael's eyes began tearing as she laughed. Finally, she stopped.
"You okay?" Lee asked, uncertain about the tears.
"I think that's the first good laugh I've had in . . . well a long time. It felt good."
"I promise you many more yucks ahead if you have a little patience with us as we get you out of this mess."
"I'm trying, Lee"
"The doctors are going to wean you off the drugs that Paulino was dosing you with. Hopefully that will help."
The room went silent. The return to present circumstances was necessary, but unwelcome. The arrival of a handsome young doctor proved a pleasant distraction. "Behave yourself!" Lee yelled as they left Rachael with him.
Lee and Roger walked to Saul's office, trailed by Roger's personal master-at-arms. "I hope something breaks today."
"I think Rachael forgot her deadline."
"Don't be fooled, Rog. She pointed my gun at me last night and ordered me overboard."
"Overboard? Huh?"
"We went for a little sail."
"Brilliant, buddy." Roger shook his head.
"At least my gun wasn't loaded."
"So you didn't have to walk the plank after all?"
"No. She wouldn't have shot me anyway. She turned the gun on herself pretty quickly."
"Shit."
"That's when I told her it was empty. She gave it up for a while, before she jumped overboard."
Roger laughed. "She really isn't in her right mind if she thought she could out swim you! Mark Spitz might, but a normal human no way."
"I know. So don't be fooled by her. It's not all good suddenly."
"We can expect some shit to hit the fan today when Admiral Johnson finds out about Saul's stunt."
"Guess we should go see if that's happened yet."
Saul was already immersed in paperwork in the conference room, his eyes sagging. "Morning gentlemen."
"You look like you went off a cliff last night," Roger said.
"This morning, eastern time, courtesy of Admiral Johnson."
"Ugly?"
Saul shrugged. "He can moan to my boss. I'm not in his direct chain of command."
"Like that will stop him!" Roger laughed.
"He's got your back, Roger. That was the one useful piece of information I got out of him."
"Useful how?" Lee asked.
"It seems that before Miss Mattingly's murder, Admiral Johnson was the recipient of certain anonymous letters disparaging Roger's character, one of which bore a Palomar Mountain postmark."
"Coincidence?" Lee wondered aloud.
"You've been there. How likely do you think that is?"
"Maybe we could get a handwriting analysis?"
"Lee, think about what you are suggesting. It's not something we would want to use in court even if it were admissible. Frankly, I'd prefer to keep the letters anonymous and ascertain the significance of what their being written might be."
"I don't give a shit at this point. If it will help get Rachael cleared, bring it on," Roger said.
"The letters themselves won't. They only establish that Mr. Oliver appeared to have issues with your . . ."
"Sexual preference, Saul. You can say it out loud. I'm ready to shout it from the rooftops if it helps Rachael."
"Why would Oliver set out to ruin you, Rog?"
"Maybe he really loved Melanie and thought if he outed me, it would end. Lord knows, I'd be out of a job."
"Why shoot Melanie if that's the case?"
"In Mr. Oliver's rantings to Admiral Johnson he appeared to equate homosexuality with child predation and molestation. If he truly believed that, might it be possible that he would be so desperate to keep his baby from you as to kill Melanie and her fetus?" Saul asked.
"That's nonsensical. Why not just kill Roger if that was his issue? Aren't we confidant that he'd already sabotaged Roger's brakes? He had a clean line to shoot Mel, so he also had to have a good one to shoot Roger." Lee scratched his head.
"Correct, which is why I think we are missing a piece of vital information. Maybe Melanie and Oliver conspired together. Miss Mattingly offered up her baby to Roger in exchange for obtaining large amount of life insurance on Roger. Mr. Oliver sabotaged Roger's brakes in furtherance of their deal."
"Stop it. Mel wouldn't have. Mel wasn't violent and couldn't even stand violence like that. We really did have a deep friendship."
"You may be right, that she never intended to follow through or wanted you dead. But was Miss Mattingly above gaming the situation? What if Miss Mattingly was stringing Mr. Oliver along? She needed a baby and promised him the moon to get him to play along. Then she kicked him to the curb. Maybe Mr. Oliver figured it out and took his revenge on her?"
"If it were true, how the heck could we prove any of this with both of them dead?" Lee asked.
"Therein lies our problem. Two things I want to happen today are this. You two are to follow up with the studios today and any other leads on Mr. Oliver's friends and relationships. I want any personal detail you can find. Someone killed him; we need to know if the reason relates to Melanie Mattingly's murder."
"The second thing?"
"I'll be interviewing Randall Mattingly later to see what if anything he's willing to impart about Herbert Oliver. I also want to find out what he met with Miss Mattingly about. Something about him seems off kilter to me. My gut says he is our wildcard."
"I agree. He was openly disdainful of Melanie. I can't figure out why he'd have bothered to hook her up with the insurance agent in the first instant. It seems too random, especially with all the calls that followed between him and Oliver."
"Uh, guys, I followed up on the brothers Mattingly the other night. I'm more than a little confused now, however. If Oliver felt that strongly about gay men, what was he doing calling Randall Mattingly? He's queer as - well, me."
"Maybe he didn't know? It wasn't the first thing that crossed my mind on meeting him," Lee said.
Saul cocked his head and nodded. "You know, that raises an interesting thought. What if Randall Mattingly knew of Oliver's feelings on the subject? He might have manipulated Oliver."
"Oh, that's a nasty thought," Lee said.
Roger just shook his head. Saul left them alone to ponder and make more phone calls. At half past eleven, Lee yelled, "Direct hit!"
"What?"
"Oliver got tossed off a major studio lot after spouting off his thoughts about the leading actor on the set, particularly about him working with child actors."
"Oh."
Roger then picked up a ringing phone. By the time he'd put it down, five minutes later, Roger looked like he wanted to throw up. "I guess we've got some context for Oliver's issues now, mistaken though his facts were. Turns out that he was a victim of molestation as a young boy."
"Got any details, if they are relevant?"
"A gym teacher in elementary school who coached after school sports. It was an ugly situation. Apparently quite a number of children were involved, girls and boys."
"Which somehow led Oliver to despise homosexuals?"
"Despite the fact that his molester wasn't one. He was married, with children of his own, and abused both girls and boys. Many people just don't get that child predation has nothing to do with homosexuality, that on being caught, these folks overwhelmingly identify as heterosexual."
"Okay, so now we have confirmed what we already knew. Oliver had issues with homosexuals. Does that get us anything new?"
"Not to my mind. If he was so worried about me and his baby, why wouldn't he just kill me? Why go after Melanie?"
"If he were a poor shot, we could have supposed that he meant to kill you, but he wasn't."
"Yes, but who knows how much he kept up with it? Rachael's gun might have been unfamiliar to him. It has quite a recoil for a little gun because she had it specially bored. Maybe he had no chance to practice? We were only standing a couple of feet apart."
"Maybe Melanie was in with him on an insurance deal and he figured out she was double crossing him?"
"What would he get out of that? A dead ex-girlfriend, a dead baby, and no insurance proceeds to share. Unless he had insurance on Melanie. Is that possible?"
"Beats me. I don't know much about life insurance."
"I know you need some relationship to get it on someone. I just don't know if someone having your baby would suffice or if any agent would issue a policy based on a paternity claim like that."
"We'll ask Saul. He should be calling in any minute from Santa Barbara."
Lee and Roger continued to make calls and jot down thoughts until Saul called in. Roger put him on speaker phone.
"I only have a few minutes before I meet with Randall Mattingly. Find anything helpful?"
Roger filled him in on what they'd learned.
"That dovetails beautifully, gentlemen. I think we are about to crack the murder of one Herbert Oliver a.k.a. Oliver Smith. Forensics has confirmed arson at Oliver's place. They also found recent tire tracks from a Land Rover."
"Great, but exactly how does that help Rachael?"
"Oh, it's all tied together. While I'm questioning Randall Mattingly, forensics will be taking tire imprints from a Land Rover registered to Richard Mattingly, which Randall was driving during the days in question."
"Does Randall know he's a suspect?"
"Suspect? No, he's just a material witness, gentlemen. This will be a voluntarily given, noncustodial interview. No lawyers are involved. Keep your fingers crossed. Randall may crack, especially since Richard Mattingly is voluntarily cooperating in every way possible. Randall may have underestimated Richard Mattingly's love for his daughter. I'll keep you posted."
"Hold on a second, Saul! Susan just came in with something."
"Hey boss, forensics says Oliver's van matches the description and partial picture of the backfiring van at the wedding. While it was in bad shape from the fire, they found no remnants of a catalytic converter and confirmed several holes - all too regular to be natural - in the exhaust system."
"Thanks, Susan. Lunch is on me. Wish me luck, gentlemen."
"Good luck," Roger and Lee both repeated, before they both shook their heads.
"Should I order up some lunch for you two?" Susan asked.
"Thanks, but no. I think I could use a walk to clear my head."
"I want to go check on Rachael." Lee said. "Bring back something for us if you don't mind."
Roger shot Lee a sly look.
"I'm worried that Johnson has gotten through to her somehow."
"You could just call over there."
"No, I feel the need to see her."